Two weeks and one day ago, it seemed so simple for the former leftist boy wonder, who took a sharp turn to the center around the time he became eligible for membership in the American Association of Retired Persons.

Now, the best Green can hope is to become a pale imitation of Rudy.

Yesterday afternoon, Green insisted he wasn’t concerned about the support for extending Giuliani’s term.

“It will pass,” Green told me. “When there’s a Democratic nominee and a presumptive next mayor, it will quiet the speculation [about a third term for Rudy] and focus the city on the new mayor and on our city’s renewal.

“People ask, ‘Oh my God, aren’t you upset about how this has thrown the election off?’ and I stare at them in disbelief.

“Upset? That’s the surviving family of someone in the World Trade Center. That’s someone who lives in Battery Park City and can’t go home.”

The tragedy will dominate the next mayor’s term.

For starters, with men in uniform having given their lives to save innocents, you can bet that police-community relations – Green’s euphemism for “brutality” – will take a back seat.

“My two priorities,” said Green, “are safety and security, first, and rebuilding New York, a close second.”

For some, yesterday marked the first time in two weeks they’d given serious thought to anything other than the World Trade Center.

Greg Manning called from the hospital where his critically injured wife was taken two weeks ago. Where once he leaned toward Green, he now rejects the idea of changing mayors.

“The politicians who say it’s ‘too late’ to change term limits are making statements worthy of our enemies,” said Manning.

Here’s what I did yesterday. You can do the same in the general election:

I voted for the Democratic mayoral candidate I found least objectionable.

Then, I wrote in “Rudolph Giuliani” for the office of Public Advocate – the job that’s second-in-line to the mayor.

With Rudy as public advocate, if the new mayor should decide he’s not up to the job, the mayor could theoretically resign and hand the reins of government back to Giuliani.